The MPA (formerly the Magazine Publishers’ Association and now the Association of Magazine Media — but still using the acronym MPA), finally released a plan to standardize tablet metrics and measurement.

The MPA had previously released a set of voluntary guidelines, which were meant to aid ad sales into digital editions, but  would also help with subscription retention. The MPA’s announcement at their conference in New Orleans this week focused on making those voluntary guidelines mandatory.

The main problem in adoption has been the fact that different platforms (i.e., the iPad, Nook, Kindle) offer up and deliver data in different ways.

To remedy this problem, the MPA is working with Zinio, Google, Nook, Adobe, CDS Global, Palm Coast Data and other production and fulfillment companies to develop software that would automatically track the following metrics:

1. Total Consumer Paid Digital Issues: An unauthenticated/ bundled issue, which has been paid for by an end user. Sponsored, corporate or “free” editions will not be counted.
2. Total Number of Digital Edition Readers Per Issue: The total number of “unique” readers who have opened an issue for the first time.
3. Total Number of Sessions Per Issue: The total number of aggregate opens for all versions of an issue across all digital newsstands.
4. Average Amount Of Time Spent Per Reader Per Issue: The aggregate total time spent across all digital issues divided by the total number of unique readers.
5. Average Number Of Sessions Per Reader Per Issue: The total number of sessions across all digital issues divided by the total number of unique readers.

I’ve consistently emphasized the importance tablet editions will play in revitalizing the paid content industry. For one, consumers will pay for the convenience of a lean back device. Desktop and laptop computers are not as comfortable for consuming content as a tablet edition.

But that may be changing as well, as a new study predicts that 25% of all laptops will have a touchscreen by 2015. These means that subscription sites will need to get ready for design that’s more finger-friendly, as well as the fact that users are, once again, going to interact with your product and content differently. Get ready for another disruption!

Image: (c) meedanphotos via flickr.

As we discovered in our survey of subscription site executives for the 2013 Online Subscription Benchmark Report, 87% of subscription sites plan on launching new subscription and paid products this year. One new product that we particularly like is the Toronto Star’s eBook subscription service for long-form news content called Star Dispatches.

Subscribers to Star Dispatches get one long-form news story — of varying genres, from lifestyle to investigative pieces — delivered each week to their chosen eReader device (iPad, Nook, etc.) for the low price of $1. The new subscription product has been able to garner thousands of subscribers in just six months.

One way Star Dispatches has been able to garner so many subscribers is by emailing the Toronto Star’s existing database of subscribers with six-week trial offers. (Note: Star Dispatches has a number of savvy marketing tactics, including leveraging the Toronto Star website’s tremendous traffic with display ads. To find out more about their marketing tactics and the expected profitability by year’s end, read the Case Study on Subscription Site Insider.)

However, Star Dispatches makes one critical mistake in how it leverages existing subscribers of its flagship publication — it requires existing subscribers create a new account on StarDispatches.com.

For this reason, Star Dispatches doesn’t automatically charge takers of its six-week trial. Instead it asks Toronto Star subscribers to enter their credit card information again — even though the company already has the information on file!

This is a technological hiccup that subscription sites can remedy by creating integrated databases and single sign-ons. In fact, TheDay did this nicely, allowing subscribers to easily take advantage of its membership rewards program, even though the news site and membership program were on two different sites and platforms.

While single sign-ons require custom coding in most cases, they’re usually worth the expense in terms of conversion optimization and retention. So, if you’re launching a new subscription product this year, be sure to budget time and money for this technology. It’ll keep you profitable down the line.

Whether you’re using Webinars to sell your services or as stand-alone editorial content, you’ll be interested in the new metrics on Webinar engagement and marketing, compiled by Webinar platform provider On24.

On24 examined the data from the 2300+ Webinars conducted by its customers in 2012 and found a number of interesting metrics:

• Email to your own in-house list remains the most effective way to get people to register to attend Webinars.
• Two emails — one promoting the topic and another promoting the speaker — is often the most effective marketing email strategy.
• Same-day emails have a high conversion rate (21%, on average). And same-day reminders boost attendance.
• Banner ads were not seen to be effective. However, we doubt that On24′s clients were using banner ads with behavioral targeting, which is a highly effective way to increase Webinar attendance.
• Most Webinar registrants sign-up on Tuesday. The least sign-up on Friday.
• On average, more than 60% of registrants attend a Webinar with training or corporate communications material. Only 42% of registered users, on average, will attend a marketing-only Webinar.
• 53% of On24 Webinars had more than 200 attendees.
• On average, 25% of registered attendees will view an on-demand recording of the Webinar.

To that last point, we believe that on-demand recordings are a highly cost-effective way to get more play out of your Webinars. But while the average viewing time for On24 Webinars was around 53 minutes, audiences tend to prefer shorter on-demand videos (also, keep in mind that On24′s platform is more interactive and seamless than most Webinar platforms, and therefore higher engagement is easier, which then fosters longer viewing times). That doesn’t mean you have to cut your content — just design it to be broken up into smaller bit, like we did with our four-part On-Demand Video of our Mobile Email Webinar back in November.

Marketing experts know that creating a sense of scarcity (even if there’s abundance) can create more value around a product, and thus, significantly help drive sales. Just think of how Apple ensures that its supply of new iPhones always trails demand (thus driving more demand).

We’ve discussed before how online subscription marketers can create scarcity with a timed subscription offer. But scarcity was also long used by the editorial departments of print publications to convey the importance of a story. That is, the more important story got more space on the page and more prominent positioning (such as “above the fold”).

Some online content publishers have assumed that “above the fold” can create importance online (and in some ways it can). However, Amanda Cox of The New York Times graphics desk recently commented on how audiences can gauge the importance of a story by how the perceived amount of tech development that went into it.

Granted, Cox works the graphics desk and she’s particularly interested in graphic design, which is labor intensive even in the online space. But her point is still valid. Indefinite page space means there’s less need for the inverted pyramid of journalism (and more journalists who don’t know when to stop writing).

However, when journalists work side-by-side with coders and Web designers to create interactive or engaging graphical stories — or even databases that allow readers to alter and examine complex data with ease — audiences have an innate understanding that this information/news is more important than the plethora of stories on a given site. And that was reflected in Cox’s own study, where she tagged her graphical creations according to a variety of factors and found that the most difficult to code were also the most popular.

And when important information is popular, it’s easier for publishers to charge for it.

Image: (c) David Paul Ohmer via flickr

While social media isn’t great for acquiring paying subscribers, it can be a great traffic driver for subscription content sites, particularly those with a freemium model.

Yet to date, few subscription content sites have a formal referral tool. At one point, Facebook had an option to “suggest friends” on fan pages, but that tool was discontinued.

But fortunately, and independent developer known as VTools created Smart Suggest — an easy-to-install Facebook tool that lets current fans recommend your Facebook fan page to their friends.

The tool is presented on a fanpage, next to the tabs for Photos, Likes, etc. (See the green box below):

When a visitor clicks on it, they’re prompted with the option to type a personal message and then recommend Facebook friends:

To install the app, just go to the Facebook page for Smart Suggest, and click on “Install Now.” If you’re already logged into your Facebook account (and have admin privileges for your site), the app will automatically ask which fanpages you want to install the app on:

You’ll be asked to confirm your decision, and then the app will take you to your fanpage with the Smart Suggest icon and tab already added (see green box again):

So far it doesn’t look like you can get email addresses or the like from the app, but it’s definitely a good way to create a formal word-of-mouth program on Facebook, and we’ll let you know what lessons we learn from using the app on our own Facebook fanpage.

Zinio, the digital magazine newsstand, recently launched Z-Pass, a subscription service that allows consumers to get 3 magazines for $5/month. Best of all, the subscription plan adopts a Netflix-style to magazines, allowing subscribers to swap out titles. So one month, you can read Popular Mechanics, Fit Pregnancy and Esquire, and the next it’s Discover, Cosmo and Inc.

Zinio has the advantage of being the first digital magazine platform on the scene, founded in 2001 — eight years ahead of the iPad. Yet, it hasn’t had the same reach as mega-platforms like the iPad, Nook and Kindle.

The new subscription plan, however, might revitalize the company. First, being a pioneer in the digital magazine world, Zinio has 5,500 titles. The Z-Pass lets subscribers choose from a catalog of 300 of those titles. They can also add more than three titles for an additional $1.50 each, although some magazines, like The Economist, cost more.

Zinio’s president Michelle Bottomley said the $5 price came out of consumer research, but it’s really the swapping feature that I think will make this program a success. It’s rare that consumers read every issue of any title (just like it’s rare they listen to every song on an album– which is why Apple’s iTunes has been such a success). But I’m willing to bet consumers would be thrilled to read single issues, especially when a particular article is getting buzz through friends or media coverage. And then they can read next month’s “hot” articles from other magazines — without having to pay more or buy a separate subscription.

It’s a brilliant system — something finally akin to the micropayment model of iTunes, but more appropriate to the way people consume magazines. Plus, consumers are happier to give their credit card over once to a reputed retailer than to multiple companies (or multiple times, when buying single digital issues for the Kindle or Nook).

I say keep your eye on Zinio — they may be on to something here.

While behavioral targeting, also known as behavioral advertising, is mostly being employed by eCommerce sites, is also a useful traffic driver and engagement tool for subscription and paid content sites.

For example, Consumer Reports uses behavioral advertising to advertise it’s website (and get online subscription sales) on other content sites, such as the Christian Science Monitor.

Consumer Reports’s behavioral ad on Christian Science Monitor

But behavioral ads aren’t just for B2C sites. During this week’s Members-Only Webinar on Subscription Site Insider, Erik Matlick, CEO of Madison Logic, explained how B2B sites are using this technology.

For example, Madison Logic conducted an A/B test of Webinar attendees for one of its own Webinars. They split Webinar registrants into two groups: Group A received standard email reminders, while group B received both email reminders and behavioral targeted ads mentioning the Webinar title and date during the 12 days prior to the Webinar. Results showed a 30.4% lift in attendance among group B.

And while the test Webinar was free to attend, subscription sites, especially B2B subscription sites, could use a similar campaign to increase member engagement for members-only events, such as exclusive streaming interviews or virtual and offline conferences. They could also use behaviorally-targeted ads for increasing subscription sales, making sure to target prospects during their peak discovery and research period.

To find out when that peak discovery period is, you’ll want to view the On-Demand Video of Matlick’s talk to Insider members. Just sign up for a $1 trial today and you’ll get instant access to the video playback!

TheStreet recently reported that it saw its online subscription revenues increase 13% compared to the same quarter the previous year, for a total of $10.4 million.

The increase is largely attributed to TheStreet’s acquisition of The Deal last September for $5.8 million, which allowed the company to add new newsletter subscriptions to its existing subscription services (which already included six newsletter subscriptions and a host of other subscription services). The number of paid subscriptions by the end of Q1 was 76,090, an increase of 3.5% from the previous quarter.

However, the company also posted a loss of $1.7 million, and advertising revenue seems to have taken a significant hit, dropping 40% in Q1 to $2.2 million.

Total revenue for Q1 was reported as $12.6 million, while operating expenses were estimated at $14.4 million, indicating that TheStreet still needs to adjust its business model to be financially sustainable.

Here’s an interesting market test for online content — selectively subject your audience to it based on geo-location.

You largely don’t hear about geo-location testing anymore, yet Politco has decided to adopt this artifact of market research to test its audience’s receptivity to a metered paywall. Starting next week, readers in Iowa, North Dakota, Vermont, Mississippi, New Mexico and Wyoming will be subjected to a meter count when viewing the site’s currently free content (Politico already has a premium subscription area called Politico Pro).

The blog post announcing the test also said that while the site is testing a meter for its readers nationwide, its DC-based audience will NEVER be subjected to a meter since the site often sells out its ad inventory for this market.

So apparently, “separate and not equal” is the new model. And that’s a risky bet for Politico — especially in a virtual world where audience members could be in DC one week and New York the next.

Clearly the site has chosen its six test markets based on size — small size, that is. By choosing small audiences, the site doesn’t risk alienating the majority of its users. But is that good market research? Probably not, especially considering Vermont is the only “blue state” in the list of six (and not a very “typical” blue state).

Politico might have been wiser to adopt Consumer Reports’s model when it wanted to test its television ad across the political spectrum and socioeconomic status. CRO chose to test its ad spot in Madison, Wisc., which is known for having both rural and urban populations along with a healthy mix of registered Republicans and Democrats. Results from one test in a market that mirrored the general population are more easily generalizable than any of the results Politico will likely get from its six-state test.

If you attended Subscription Site Summit, you got to hear David Chun speak about Equilar Atlas — a paid social network for CEOs and senior executives.

But Chun is not alone, as more and more social networks and membership sites adopt a paid, country-club model. The latest is ASmallWorld, which positions itself as an “international community of culturally influential people.” The site is charging €85 a year for invitation-only memberships.

Previously, the site tried to be free, but its growing number of members made it re-brand itself as a “trusted community” rather than an “elite social network.” By adopting a paid model, CEO Sabine Heller told Business Insider that the site could now verify its user base, a veritable sign that the company is trying to get back to its “elite” roots.

Membership would include:

• Deals, discounts and exclusive access from hundreds of hotels, airlines, spas, fashion designers and other luxury businesses.
• Access to 50 exclusive events, parties, weekend getaways and concerts, organized by ASmallWorld.
• Nightlife concierge services

The site says it will be capping its membership off at 250,000, which means it should make €21.25 million a year if it meets its mark. While that’s an impressive sum, it’s unclear if the annual subscription of €85 (which seems low for an “elite” audience) will be able to sustain the site, unless the company makes events and other services an “upsell” offer.